Famous Canadian Surnames Singer/songwriter Shania Twain has two interesting names. Shania is Ojibwa for 'on my way.'
Of the types of surnames found in Canadian English, there are four broad categories. In general, surnames developed: 1. from an ancestor’s first name (e.g., Ben Johnson, Brian Williams) 2. from the ancestral place of birth or the locality of held land, for example Peter Kent or Sir Sandford Fleming. A Fleming is literally a ‘man from Flanders.’ A surname might develop from a topographical feature near the ancestor’s homestead, for example in the name of one of my few Canadian political heroes, Stanley Knowles. His name comes from Old English cnoll ‘top of a hill’ and Knowle is the name of villages in four English counties, so the surname Knowles can be a locative genitive meaning the ancestor came from one of them. 3. from the occupation or status of the founder of the family. Canadian actress Kate Trotter has a surname that once stated an ancestor’s job of ‘messenger.’ Other surnames which belong to this category are Tommy Hunter and Douglas Fisher. 4. and, producing the smallest number, surnames derived from the nickname of an ancestor like Elizabeth Smart, novelist, author of By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. Here belong the now rare clausal surnames of jittery warriors like Shake-speare and pompous beadles like Wagstaff. To picture a pompous beadle, think of Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
Canadian Surnames from Ancestors’ Occupations Today let’s look at families named after the occupation of the founding ancestor. Renowned Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester had an ancestor who was a medieval gamekeeper. Last names took their final hereditary forms between 1300 and 1600, therefore the occupation surnames reflect a late medieval world of manual labour and craft skills. The large number of different occupation names in Late Middle English is astonishing. More than two hundred different occupations have their own agent nouns. Sir Martin Frobisher (1539–1594) who gave his name to Canada’s Frobisher Bay had an ancestor who was a furbisher, that is, he burnished armour. He put the final polish on swords and lances so they would sparkle on the day of the joust. Canadian publisher James Lorimer sports a surname derived from the agent noun for a medieval craftsman who forged the metal bits and studs used to adorn and strength the harnesses put on horses. It’s from Old French loremier ‘bit-maker’ from OF lorain ‘straps of a harness’ from Late Latin loranum ‘harness strap’ from Latin lorum ‘leather thong, strap.’ A variant of lorimer, loriner, was far more common in everyday speech and in documents. Lorimer as an agent noun is completely obsolete. But loriner survives in the title of one of the hundred or so London livery companies, those splendid remnants of the medieval guilds that once regulated trade apprenticeship and marketing, forerunners of labour unions. The Noble Company of Loriners and Spurriers (makers of spurs) still marches proudly through London streets in the Lord Mayor’s annual parade. CBC Radio sportscaster Dave Naylor boasts a founding ancestor who cast nails and spikes at a forge. That nailer also sold nails. Star of TV’s“The Urban Peasant” cooking show, James Barber, had a forebear who, of course, cut hair. But medieval barbers also pulled out teeth, hence the spiralling red line representing blood on barber poles. Barbers also performed minor surgeries without benefit of anesthetic. The philanthropic Chalmers family of Ontario may boast an ancestor who was a chalmer, that is, a chamberlain, a personal servant in a great mansion, or, if the family name originated a little later in English history, a chalmer was a kind of jack-of-all-trades at a country inn or city tavern.
The late Canadian firebrand and broadcaster extraordinaire, Jack Webster, bore a name that means weaver. Canadian playwright George F. Walker did not inherit a family name from Elizabethan sprinters. Walker is an occupation name from medieval cloth manufacture. After the cloth had been dyed and set, it was washed, and then walkers trod upon the cloth in order to clean it. Fuller is yet another surname from the cloth trade. Fuller’s earth was used to stiffen the cloth, clean it, and make it easier to tease up the nap on woven goods. A fuller actually used the prickly heads of the dried teasel plant. To Canadians teasel is an unpleasant weed. But beside cloth-making buildings in medieval England grew vast fields of teasel.
A fuller watches a shearman in an 18th century cloth mill. A fuller scoured and thickened the woven cloth by washing it in water containing fuller's earth or urine to help remove any grease. Then the cloth was dried on frames called tenters. After this a shearman and a fuller, as shown in our woodblock engraving, brushed and wet the cloth to comb up the nap with teasels. Anyone named Ledbetter had an ancestor who worked with the metal lead as a lead-beater. A hayward was a hedge-guard, a village official in charge of the maintenance of fences and enclosures. In Middle English a travers collected tolls. Tolls were exacted not only at toll bridges, but on certain roads through estates and towns. The surname Travers was as widespread throughout Great Britain as medieval tolls. And finally, a few occupation names are much older than the medieval ones. Mather, for example, is pure Anglo-Saxon. In Old English, mæðere was a reaper or a mower. If this subject fascinates you, there are hundreds more startling stories about famous Canadian names in my book, What’s in a Canadian Name? Click on the bookcover for more samples or to order the book online.
© 2005 William Gordon Casselman
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